World News for Students of English

06-04-2022 07:00

On Wednesday, the family of American actor Bruce Willis announced that he suffers from aphasia.

Aphasia is a disease which impacts a person’s ability to speak and to understand what other people speak or write. The disease usually starts after a stroke or a head injury. If a person has aphasia and he works in a job with language, it can cause a big impact on his work. For that reason, Willis decided to retire.

The 67-year-old actor became famous in the 1980s thanks to the TV series ‘Moonlighting’. He then played in five ‘Die Hard’ films, which made him an international star. He played in more than 100 films, and eight of them were in 2021. They weren’t Willis’s best films, but fans still loved the actor, and the news about his disease shocked them.

Difficult words: ability (the skill or power to do something), stroke (a sudden attack when the brain doesn’t get enough blood), retire (to stop working).

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